: Re: How do I avoid the "chosen hero" feeling? In many works of genre-fiction (I'm talking mainly about fantasy and sci-fi, but others genres can apply), and across many forms of media, the main

@Ann1701686

Vote Up Vote Down

You can try adding a twist. Follow the usual pattern, and when the final battle comes, the prophecy is about to be fulfilled - it turns out...

...MC has been mistaken, lied to or used, that MC is no Chosen One at all and has no higher chance to do "the thing" than a
regular person, which was presumably said to be zero...

...but still, MC does "the thing".
...alone or with help from MC, someone else does "the thing".
...noone does "the thing" and either Game Over - it was actually a tragedy!, or a way to prepare space for a sequel, where
someone finally does "the thing". (you can be extra mean and let
the sequel end badly)

...there is no "the thing" at all!

...there are / have been others who are trying / tried to do "the thing" who failed for one reason or another and it wasn't certain MC will be the one who finally does it at all.

Maybe even exaggerate the "chosen" aspect a little. Works well for putting emphasis on "overcoming odds", "last minute help" or "extra despair" effect in 1A, 1B and 1C option, respectively.
If you want to kill the whole Chosen One aspect altogether though, either make sure there is no goal clearly more important than any other events in the story, introduce multiple very important characters or avoid having a single MC throughout the whole story, switching between multiple characters as you progress or move to other character after a few chapters.
For example, any slice-of-life story is pretty much immune. It doesn't have to be a mellow story at all, by the way. I can imagine a SoL taking place on the battlefield during a non-pivotal battle in a long war, following a group of regular low ranking soldiers. Not one of them being protected by a plot armor, no chance of the war ending anytime soon, result of the battle we observe from their point of view not entirely relevant. But you really have to flesh out the characters to make it interesting, I think this really tests ones skill to write deep characters with real personalities. Quite often you can get away with shallow heroes because there's a lot of shiny explosions and flashing lasers - here you have nothing but the characters.
By the way, I recommend checking out a game called The Longest Journey - can't spoil the story, but let's just say it works really well with this whole thing, in my opinion. Including the main heroine contemplating the trope as well.

(0)

Login to post a comment!